Venezuela condemns U.S., NATO, UN over Libya War at UN General Assembly

Posted: 2011/09/29

Venezuelan Foreign Minister: "There is a very serious threat to global peace: a new cycle of colonial wars, which started in Libya, with the sinister goal of refreshing the capitalist global system."

Nicolas Maduro Moros, foreign minister of Venezuela, on Tuesday lashed out at the involvement of the US-European North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the UN in recent events in Libya.

Moros' statement came as he was addressing the general debate of the UN General Assembly at its 66th session to transmit a message from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias.

"Right now there is a very serious threat to global peace: a new cycle of colonial wars, which started in Libya, with the sinister goal of refreshing the capitalist global system, within a structural crisis today, but without any limit to its consumer and destructive voracity," Moros said.

"It is necessary to remember and to recur to our immediate memory: Venezuela, alongside the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA), was actively advocating for a peaceful and negotiated solution to the Libyan conflict," said Moros.

The Venezuelan foreign minister said that peaceful resolution of the Libyan situation was derailed by the US and NATO and that reports of attacks on the Libyan people by the Libyan Air Force were unfounded in truth.

"However, after all, the logic of war decreed by the UN Security Council and put into practice by NATO, the armed wing of the Yankee Empire, was imposed," he said.

"The logic of war having its spearhead in trans-national mass media: let us bear in mind that the 'Libyan Case' was brought before the Security Council on the basis of intense propaganda by the western mass media, who lied about the alleged bombing of innocent civilians by the Libyan Air Force, not to mention the grotesque media setting of the Green Square of Tripoli."

He said that a premeditated bunch of lies were used to justify "military regime change policy" by NATO.

"It's worth wondering: what has the no-fly zone established by the Security Council resolution become?" said Moros. "How could NATO perform more than 20,000 missions against the Libyan people if there was a no-fly zone? After the Libyan Air Force was completely annihilated, the continued 'humanitarian' bombing shows that the west, through NATO, intends to impose their interests in North Africa, turning Libya into a colonial protectorate."

Moros said that Venezuela questions the legitimacy of the arms embargo placed on Libya through Security Council resolution 1970 and strengthened by resolution 1973.

"How can we say that an arms embargo was imposed on Libya, when it was NATO itself that introduced thousands of heavy weapons to support a violent upheaval against that country's legitimate government?" Moros said. "The embargo was, of course, meant to prevent the Libyan government from defending its sovereignty. This shows, once again, the cruel logic of international relations, where the law only applies to the weak."

Moros called for an immediate end to the NATO bombings in Libya and said the UN must reform in order to serve it's purpose.

He called the current state of the international organization a crisis, a point he said Venezuela has made previously.

"Since then and until now, nothing has been done: the political will of the most powerful ones has prevailed," said Moros. "Sure, the UN, as for its current functioning, docilely pledges to their interests. For us it is obvious that the UN is not improving and will not improve from the inside."

"If its secretary-general, along with the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC), take part in an act of war, as in the case of Libya, nothing can be expected from the current structure of this organization and there is no longer time for reforms: the UN does not accept any reform whatsoever, the illness within it is deadly," he added.

Moros criticized the Security Council, saying that a first step to re-founding the UN as a whole would be to eliminate the permanent member category and veto power from the peace and security body. He said that the General Assembly's power must be democratically maximized and that a comprehensive review of the UN charter, with the aim of redrafting a new one, should be imposed.

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